


Doing What Needs To Be Done

by SweetlySinisterScribbler



Category: The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: F/M, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Suspense, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 24,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22205341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetlySinisterScribbler/pseuds/SweetlySinisterScribbler
Summary: Children in the Shadow World have gone missing. The world is not safe for them, not right now at least. Where did they go? What happened to them? And who are these new people in the Institute? Why are they there?
Relationships: Clary Fray/Jace Wayland
Kudos: 3





	1. What Happened To Clary?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Guys! So this is a story I thought after after reading one of my favorite book series "The Mortal Instruments". I haven't been able to get this story idea out of my mind so I decided to write it. Now you all have it.

_Clary P.O.V._

_Everything hurts. My head, my arms… everything. Looking on the ground to my right and then my left, all I can see is blood pooling around me. Trying to get up, I feel this pain in my right shoulder which now feels like glass. My entire body feels like glass, like any little touch would break me completely._

" _AAAAHHH1" I scream, gripping my shoulder with my left hand, falling back to the ground and curling into a ball. I can feel something rip, something else feeling like I am getting stabbed and when I look to the ground I can only see more blood pouring out from a wound on my abdomen._

' _Is that mine?' I thought, laying there trying to remember what happened. 'Oh yeah, that's right. We fought and I was pushed. They pulled out that thing. I hit that other thing and they still came for me. '. I can remember everything that happened, but how long will that last? I look around me for people or buildings, but there are none. I go to grab my stele and then remember…it's broken. My phone is who knows where. "They're safe" I say to myself. "They made it."_

_Laying here, all I can think of is how this came to happen. Why I was here in this position and why everything else happened. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long as the pain and blood loss become too much and I am encompassed in the darkness._

Six Months Earlier

Clary P.O.V.

"So, what's all of this about Maryse? Did I do something wrong?" I ask as we walk into the Idris Meeting Hall.

"I don't know. The Clave called a meeting and said that they wanted both of us there. I wasn't given any details pertaining to the meeting, just that it was urgent." She replied. Sighing, I continue walking towards the meeting room fully annoyed.

"Any reason why they decided on a meeting at 6:30am on a SATURDAY? I mean we're shadowhunters, we are generally up until like 5:00am hunting demons. Don't they have any, ya know, common sense?" I ask Maryse completely pissed off and exhausted. Yeah, the time wasn't just for example, I haven't slept. Maryse gave me a look telling me to calm down, but didn't actually say anything. Ugh.

"At least they chose an actual meeting room this time instead of the City of Bones with the Silent Brothers like last time." I say, pushing the door open. Once inside, we find what looks to be about six members of the Clave sitting at the large, brown wooden table with two empty seats next to each other.

'Guessing those are our seats' I think slyly, walking over and sitting in one. Maryse taking the seat next to me almost instantaneously.

"Ladies, so nice of you to join us. Now let us begin." Brother Marcoh starts. Clasping his hands together, he puts a smile on his face and gives me a look, "Clarissa, you have heard about the children who have gone missing right?" he asks and I nod. "Yeah. They will be doing something innocent like riding bikes in the park, but they never come out of the park. I know all about this".

"Well," he begins, "We think we may have found them. A member of the San Diego Institute contacted us and mentioned that they thought they saw some of our missing kids. They managed to get photos and sent them to us." As he finishes, Maryse and I stand, taking the photos from his hands. One after another I see the children, but as teenagers now.

"Selena Ravenwood, Helena Rivera, Chloe Harris…" I say the names looking at them one at a time. At one point I lose count, there were about fifteen at that point. I get to the last picture and I freeze, dropping the rest of them in disbelief.

"Clary, you clumsy girl" Maryse laughs and she bends down and starts to pick them up, "I'm sorry. I don't know what's gotten into her. Clary, are you okay honey?" She asks me, but I can't respond. It feels like my feet have been frozen to the floor and my eyes stapled open

After what feels like eternity, I look up at Marcoh, "Is this…Max? Maxwell Lightwood? The same Max that we've believed to have been dead for the past five and a half years?" I say on the verge of tears. Maryse rips the photo out of my hands and looks at it, gasping loudly. Marcoh nods slowly.

"He isn't dead. But, if you don't help us, he and all those other children will be soon."


	2. Who Are These People?

Clary P.O.V.

So Max is alive. All this time, Iz has been killing herself over this believing it was her fault…and they let her? Looking at Maryse, we both realize that we can't do anything drastic or else we could lose all chance of getting Max back.

I meet Brother Marcoh's eyes, "What do I have to do? And what does Maryse have to do with this?" I ask giving him a bit of a glare.

"We need Maryse here to let her know that some new people will be moving into the institute later today. They are newer shadowhunters and we need the best to train them, the best being the Lightwoods. We need you, however, to go undercover in the Los Angeles Institute. You need to go in and clarify that the children are there, then you'll come back and let us know what you found. We will figure out what to do after that." Marcoh replied. At this point my blood is boiling.

"So I go in, find them and LEAVE THEM THERE?! What is the point of that!? I might as well kill them myself. I will find them and get them out!" I scream at the top of my lungs, Maryse behind me the entire time.

"Clarissa, please-"

"No. I am gonna find them and get them out. They have families that want their babies back - who deserve to have their babies back - and you are willing to make them suffer because you need more clarification than what you have!" I take a deep breath to quickly calm down a little bit "I will leave in three days and I will make sure that those kids get home. Good day." I stand up and kick the chair away, walking out so quickly that Maryse had to jog to catch up with me.

As soon as I get out of the building, I turn to Maryse. "You agree with me, right?"

"Of course I do, sweetheart" she pulls me into a hug, "I agree with you completely, I just wish you didn't have to do it alone. I don't want you to get yourself hurt or killed for this. I understand why you see it as important and I am soo happy that you care so much. But, I'm also quite worried with how Jace is gonna react when he hears this. I mean he has a protective side when it comes to you."

As she starts to walk away, I stop her. "Maryse, you seemed shocked that Max is alive, but you don't seem that worried about him staying alive. Do you not care?" I ask her, making her turn to face me again.

"Clary, listen. I love all of my children, but when a mother spends so much time believing that her youngest one is dead, she finds a way to begin to accept it. I accepted that he was dead, and I am happy that he is back, no doubt about it. But, I don't want to get my hopes up for something that might not happen." She tells me. Thinking about it, it makes sense not wanting to get ones hopes up for something like this. "Now," she continues "we need to get home and start working on your new identity. We also have new people to meet and help get settled in, plus we need to find a way to explain this to Jace."

"Simple. We don't tell him anything. By the time he finds out it will be too late for him to do anything. For now, this is our secret and no one else's. Now, let's get home and meet some people" I say walking away.

Jace P.O.V

I flung my arm over to the other side of the bed searching for Clary, but as soon as my arm hit the cold bed I sat straight up. Looking around, the room was clean as ever, so I get up and get dressed for the day. Exiting my room, I look up and down the hallway, but still no sign of my favorite redhead.

"Clary!" I yell as I start heading down to the kitchen. If she isn't in there then she must be training, I mean she didn't have anything lined up for today.

As soon as I enter the kitchen, I regret it. I see Izzy attempting to cook (attempting being the key word there) and rat-boy trying to fix what is already dead. On the other side of the kitchen, sitting at the dining room table, is Magnus (the world's shiniest warlock) and Alec who looks like he is trying to avoid everything that has to deal with his boyfriend.

"Jace! You're here! Good. I need someone to test out my new recipe. Simon, Alec and Maggie are all allergic to some of the ingredients so they can't help me" Izzy said as soon as she saw me.

"I would _love_ to help you, but I can't. I'm busy. But, have you seen Clary? I can't find her anywhere." I say looking at Iz expecting an answer.

"Jace" Alec called "Clary and mom had to go do something early this morning. Said they would be back whenever they were done" he finished.

I start to make my way back to my room to change for training when all of a sudden I hear *ding dong* *ding dong*. Ugh, not what I wanna be doing right now. Heading back downstairs, I meet up with the other four and Izzy opens the door.

"Can I help you?" She asks as a group of three people come into the institute. Alec, Simon and I all grab weapons, ready to attack if necessary.

"I'm Zach. Zachary Greene. This girl here is my sister Samara Greene and the guy to her right is her boyfriend Ryan Miller. We are here for the Lightwoods" The guy Zach says.

I step up, "What the hell do you want with us? Far as I'm aware of, we never crossed paths"

"We are your new roommates. We are here to be trained by 'the best' and that is you I suppose. Let's see what you got" Zach says smugly.

I don't trust this dude.

Clary P.O.V.

Maryse and I got home and as soon as we opened the door I ended up face to face with this dude. I don't know him, but Maryse whispers that these must be the new people. I step back and give them a look over to see what we're working with. There is one dude who has brown hair and matching eyes, wearing a black beanie, some torn up black jeans, a white long-sleeved shirt with a brown vest over it and some black converse.

Next to him is a girl with long black hair – nearly to her ass – and blue eyes. She is wearing a short sleeved blue shirt with some black leggings and a pair of chunky boots. I don't see any makeup or jewelry on her, but there was a tattoo on her right arm.

There is one more guy with sandy blonde hair and baby blue eyes. He has on a black shirt with some black cargo shorts and sandals. This guy has his arm wrapped around the girl so it is safe to assume they are a thing for now.

Brown hair guy locks eyes with me and walks up, pinning me against the wall. "Well, where you been all my life? Gotta say, I don't usually like red," he says taking a strand of my hair in his hand, "but I like this" his eyes never leaving me. At this point, I am so uncomfortable that I feel like throwing up. I go to push him away, but he is already gone. Looking down to the floor I see him there holding his face, blood seeping through his hands.

I feel two arms pull me in and as soon as I see Jace I pull him into the biggest hug. Stepping in front of me, Jace looks at this man in disgust and says, "Listen Zach or whatever the fuck your name is, keep your hands off my girl. You touch her again and I'll kill you" Grabbing my hand, Jace pulls me away upstairs to our room where he kicks the door shut behind us and pins me against the wall, smiles apparent on both of our faces.


	3. A New Clary?

Clary P.O.V.

Waking up this morning, all I can think of is how I don't want to get up. Lying in bed, all I can think of is everything that happened yesterday with the Clave and those new people, 'Max is alive. I now live with three strangers. Life is turning upside down.'

Getting out of bed, I head into the closet and get dressed for the day, putting on some dark green, ripped pants, with a black tank top and some black and green combat boots. Checking myself in the mirror, I decide that I look good enough, I head down to the kitchen only to smell something burning and hear an alarm going off.

"What the hell are you cooking Iz?" I yell over the alarm, covering my ears from the noise.

"French toast. Duh. You want some?" she said smiling at me

Shaking my head to say "no", I run and grab a rag, attempting to fan the smoke away from the alarm, succeeding after a few minutes. "Iz, maybe you should let me make breakfast. Why don't you go get everyone and I'll start cooking" I say trying to not anger her. Luckily, she nods and heads out.

I walk over to the fridge and pull it open, reaching in and grabbing eggs, bacon and milk. I also head over to the pantry and grab things to make pancakes and waffles. Better to make too much than too little. Putting everything on the counter, I grab a couple pans and start on the eggs in one pan with pancakes in another. After putting the bacon in the oven I stand up to feel two arms wrap around my waist – arms that don't belong to my boyfriend. Turning around, I can see that it's Zach and I quickly push him away.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? I have a boyfriend" I yell at him

"Claiming what's mine. If this 'boyfriend' of yours can't do his job of keeping an eye on you then he should be prepared for other men to come after you. So, now you belong to me." he says while looking me up and down, licking his lips.

"One. I don't belong to anyone other than myself, okay? I am not a piece of property or a trophy to be owned. Two, Jace protects me better than anyone. Hell, he's the reason I'm alive right now. Three, you gotta stop touching me. I will not be responsible if I end up putting you in the infirmary because you got a little too brave" I say seeing a hint of fear in his eyes.

Without another word, he leaves the kitchen and I get back to the food. "Great, the eggs and the pancake burned. Now I gotta start over" I say to myself. Starting another batch, I look up to see everyone else enter the kitchen, catching Jace's eye in the process. He comes over and gives me a quick kiss before helping me finish making breakfast.

Jace P.O.V.

After eating breakfast, I told Clary that I needed to talk to her alone. So now I am just waiting in my room for her to finish a conversation with Maryse. 'Why have they been so secretive lately?' I think to myself, but before I can come up with any ideas, I see my door open and my girl walk in.

"Whatsup? You said you needed to talk to me?" she asks looking confused

"Yeah I do, but not here" I say walking towards her. Grabbing her hand, I start to pull her with me. "Trust me, it's important. I just don't wanna risk anyone bothering us" I say pulling her out of the room.

We head down the hallway to a spiral staircase and head up to enter the greenhouse. Upon entering, I turn and put my hand on the small of her back to let her know that I want her to go first. Then I hear her gasp. I turn and see her looking around at all the work I did. I put candles all around (not in the reach of any plants), making sure that it would have that 'romantic' feel to it and put a rune by the door to block out all of the sunlight in order to make it dark. Looking at Clary, I see her standing in the middle of the room with a look of shock.

I walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her, leaning my head down by her ear. "What do you think?" I ask. Apparently she is too shocked to speak so she just nods. Stepping back from her, I get down on my knee and wait for her to turn around.

Clary P.O.V.

I look around me and see one of the most beautiful things ever. We're in the greenhouse and there are candles lit everywhere, I mean everywhere. I felt Jace wrap his arms around me and he said something, but I couldn't understand him so I just nodded. He disappeared I don't know how long ago, but soon enough it hit me. 'I need to draw this!' I thought turning around prepared to bolt for my drawing utensils when I saw a rare sight.

Jace on one knee. Holding out a box that was too small to hold a stele.

"Clary, I have loved you and belonged to you since the first time I saw you. I have been able to become a better person and was able to learn how to love because of you. I want to grow old with you and have a family with you. You are the greatest thing to ever happen to me. Clary, will you marry me?" he asks looking the most vulnerable I have ever seen.

"Jace, I – no. I will not marry you" I say with tears in my eyes. The last thing I see is his face drop as I run out of the room, back to my old bedroom. While in my room, there is a knock on my door, but I just ignore it as I am not ready to face Jace yet. A few more knocks come, but no one says anything, and then they end. Thinking it's over, I get changed for bed just wanting the day to end. After a few minutes, my doorknob turns and the door opens to reveal Zach. I jump out of bed.

"What are you doing? Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?"

"Well, Clarissa" he starts, locking the door behind himself, "I thought we should chat about your behavior earlier"

"We have nothing to talk about. You leave me alone and I leave you alone. That's it" I say while trying to keep distance between us. I am close to the door when I try to make a run for it. He leaps and catches me, pulling me to the ground with him. He climbs on top of me and starts to strangle me, muttering something about me needing to learn my lesson, but I can't hear him as I am trying to get free.

This light surrounds me and the next thing I know, he is off me and on the other side of the room. Sitting up and trying to catch a breath, I notice a girl standing above him with a blade in her hand. She looks at me and I realize that it's me, just with long white hair and black eyes. Zach tries to get up, but before he can this girl – or thing – grabs him by the throat and throws him at the wall. Taking her blade the girl slices him, cutting his left arm open and cutting him across an eye, making him blind in one eye.

I see Zach try to crawl away, but this thing grabs his legs and pulls him back to her with an evil smile on her face. She takes the knife and plunges it into his gut, turns it and pulls it up, leaving him cut open like a body during an autopsy. My breathing gets harder as I see her drop him and he is still moving. Moaning and groaning, he looks at me and asks for me to help him, but he gets cut off when that thing puts her boot on his back.

"No." she says, sounding like me. She bends down by him and pulls his head up by the hair, "you need to learn how to respect a woman". Dropping his head to the ground, she takes her foot off his back and uses it to bash his head in. Her foot stomping on it once, twice, three times until he doesn't look even remotely human anymore and her boot is dripping with blood.

She looks at me and I finally notice that she is drenched in blood. She doesn't even look human anymore. Her eyes meet mine and that light comes back. Next thing I know, she's gone and my clothes are drenched in blood. I run my hand through my hair and leave a bloody streak on my face. Looking in the mirror, my tank top is torn up and has blood all over it while my pants are basically red now. My right boot is dripping Zach's blood and my left one is stained around the bottom from the blood on the ground.

But I didn't fight him. I look back at him and start to cry, not believing what happened, but then I looked back in the mirror and that girl popped up.

"Let's go Clary" she says smiling like Valentine "we have places to be and people to kill"

What's happening to me?


	4. Do What Ya Gotta Do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! I am so happy that it seems like some of you are enjoying this story. I hope that I am able to keep you happy with it.   
> I would like to apologize for the lapse in postings on here, not just for this story, but for everything. Life has gotten a bit hectic for me and only gotten worse. I have been quite busy, but that doesn’t mean the postings will stop – they will just be a bit sporadic for a while.   
> I would also like to announce that I have made a twitter account for the stories! The official handle is @SweetlySiniste1. This was made a while ago and for you guys! If you want to or need to reach me quickly then please use that as the main form of contact! If you have questions or concerns then please use the twitter as well. I will make posts on there when new chapters/ stories are done and when they will be posted. I will also be doing polls on there so be sure to follow me!
> 
> Let's get onto the story!

Clary P.O.V.

I stood in the room for what felt like ages, looking in the mirror at that _thing_. It just stood there smiling at me, seeing the terror and blood on my face. I was panicking as it had just killed someone yet I was the one covered in blood. Looking it in the eyes, I know I have to try something in order to get answers.

"What are you? Who are you?" I ask in a hoarse voice, trying not to scream

"I'm you Clary. Don't you see that?" she replies with a smirk

"No, you can't be me. I am right here with red hair and green eyes, while you look like a female version of Sebastian gone wrong" I say venomously. She smirks at me and steps out of the mirror once again, but the blood stays on me. What the hell is happening? She steps in front of me, "I am the form of you that you lock away. The one that cries for blood to be spilt and for those who have wronged us to die."

Staring at her like a deer in the headlights, "I don't have a side like that. I don't want blood being spilled or people dying, I just want everyone safe. They are gonna know this wasn't me, they-"

"What? You were the last one in here and you're the one in his blood Clarissa" she whispered the name in my ear, "They won't believe you about this. I mean, 'the form of my evil self appeared out of nowhere and killed him' doesn't sound too realistic even for you".

Looking around the room, I can see the damage caused by the fight. Not much and if there wasn't blood or a dead body one would merely think someone was digging around looking for something. But there was blood: on the floor, the walls and even a little in the bathroom, and there was a body, although it didn't look all too human anymore. Part of me wants to try and convince her to stay and admit she did it, but if she really is me then that won't work. My mind starts working a hundred miles an hour and I suddenly can't breathe.

Running down the stairs, hoping that everyone is gone, I bump into Maryse. Well, I fell on top of her and now we're both lying on the floor. She gets up and helps me up, suddenly realizing what is on my clothes.

"Clary, what happened? You need to tell me what happened?" she says. My heart begins beating faster and faster, but I can't be caught for this. I still need to get those children. No matter what has to be done.

Calming my breathing down I say, "Do you know where Jace is?" She gives me a look and starts repeatedly asking me what happened, but she soon understands that I won't answer.

"He and the others went on a hunt. Why do you need him?" She asks with a bit of a bite

"I made a new rune, but promised him that I would never test them on myself. I need to test it." Reaching out and grabbing her arm, I look back up at her, "Can I? I'll tell you what happened after"

She nods and keeps her arm extended my way. I start drawing the rune and she begins to complain of a headache, asking me to stop, but I don't. I finish it and she is kneeling on the floor asking where she is and who I am. Pulling out my knife, I mutter "I'm sorry" to her before hitting her in the temple with the butt of the knife, knocking her unconscious.

Running upstairs, I grab my bag out of the closet and make sure everything is in there. I find a file on the children that the clave gave me, my clothes and bathroom products, a couple small tins of oil, my weapons and food and drink I stored in here. Everything I need. Looking at the time, I realize I have a few hours before the others come home. I quickly change my clothing to get out of the bloody stuff, so I'm now wearing some black leggings and navy blue, over the knee boots with a black, bedazzled tank top (has the image of a butterfly on it) and a navy blue leather jacket. Climbing out of the window with my stuff, my only thought is, ' _Hopefully I can still have a place to call home after this is done.'_

I walk the streets for twenty minutes before coming across the place I'm looking for. I mean, the old apartment is still covered in ash everywhere and pretty much decimated, but when no one will take the place – it generally means it won't be getting cleaned any time soon. Stepping into the place, it feels familiar to me, but also like a stranger. I walk through to my old room and put my stuff down on the bed, grabbing a knife and going into the bathroom. I hold the first bit of my hair out with the knife behind it, but before I can panic or anything I just go for it. Cutting bit by bit until the next time that I look in the mirror, I see myself with a short, blunt bob. Taking a few minutes to fix it up, I then go and grab my stele, putting on my disguise rune. This rune will only change my hair color and eye color, it's specified for those things. Looking at myself again, I have solid black hair that falls at chin level and blue eyes nearly as dark as my jacket.

It's not me, but it has to be right now. Those children need me, I just know it. Going back to the other room I reach into the bag a grab a couple tins of oil, knowing that the others will find out I was here if not. I begin splashing the oil all throughout the house until I finally make it to the front door, when I light it and walk away, only turning around once to see the place go down in flames. _'Now to the Clave. They are also a threat to this'_ I think to myself as I make the portal. Looking around quickly and seeing no one there, I step through and fall to the grounds of Idris.

Walking through the building, I am able to get down to their records without being spotted. Entering the room though, is when I realize why I wasn't spotted – BECAUSE NO ONE COMES DOWN HERE! The room is covered in dust and spider webs that I swear had to have been there since before I was born. Making my way to a stack of files not nearly as dusty as others, I look at the names and realize that these were the newer shadowhunters. I dig through them and actually find mine, opening it to read a line, **"potentially unstable as a new shadowhunter unless around a Mr. Jace Lightwood, Clarissa is useful to make runes, however she could be more dangerous than any of us believe"**. Really? That's what I got? Ugh.

Looking around the room some more, I find a pile that has recently been cleaned off, but looking at the names, they are for those who have died. I dig through them until I find one that fits, one that I need in order to complete this mission. Grabbing both files and shoving them in my bag, I head out to find the clave members, to discover that they are in another meeting to discuss my mission. Looking through the window I see only the ones who know about it, so I put a locking rune on the outside of the door, walk in and take a seat. The conversation stops as everyone is looking at me, but I catch Marcoh's eye.

"How is this for a disguise, Marcoh?" I ask. He nods and mentions something about how this would be good. I reach into my bag while they are talking and grab out a couple of things I made. Gas canisters which would relay the effects of any rune I put on it (I've been busy recently, okay?). I grab my mask and put it on so I wouldn't face the effects, put on the runes and throw the canisters which blow immediately. After a few minutes they are all on the ground choking, asking what's happening when I bunt them with the butt of the knife same as Maryse. I leave Marcoh for last who asks me who I am, to which I reply, "Amatis Graymark" before hitting him as well. I make a portal and quickly get out of dodge before anyone can find me.

I dropped down in California and made my way to the Los Angeles Institute knowing where I had to go. On the way however, I notice that someone made a trashcan fire on the side of the street.

"Looking to stay warm?' I ask the man

"Yeah. My family gone looking for food. I gotta make sure no one takes our trashcan" he replies to me.

I tell him that I'll help him out, giving him the food and drink from my bag. While he's digging through it, looking at what he got, I slip my file into the trash. No one can know who I am. I leave before he can say anything else and after about an hour more of walking, I finally found the institute. Taking a deep breath I head in, hoping this will all work out. It has to.

For the Lightwoods.


	5. Wanted Dead or Alive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! So, here we are with chapter five! I don't really have anything to say here this time other than to please leave a review and let me know what you are thinking of the story so far. Let's get onto the story.

Jace P.O.V.

Usually I love hunting, the feel of the kill and the rush of nerves one gets as they lead them away from the group, getting them alone. But today, I just wanted to drink. The others noticed easily and they would try to take the drinks from me, but they would fail. Girls would come and try to get me alone or try to take me home, but none of them were the girl I wanted.

"Come on Jace" Iz whined, "Why are you being a buzzkill tonight?" she gently pushes me.

I don't answer or even acknowledge her, I just sit there hoping that tonight was a nightmare that would be ending soon.

"Iz, maybe we should leave him alone – just give him some space. He doesn't seem right." Simon says, pulling her away so she'll stop pushing me.

Alec comes over and puts his arm over my shoulder, nudging me and succeeding in making me move. Bringing me somewhere quieter, he looked me in the eye, "What happened Jace? This isn't like you"

I start to stutter, but am able to get out, "I proposed and she said no, leaving without reason" I say with tears coming to my eyes, but not falling.

"Look, maybe she just got spooked. You gotta remember that this is still strange to her, so maybe she freaked out and ran. Okay? That girl loves you more than anything in this world, I would bet that on anything. This is just a misunderstanding, alright?" he says trying to perk me up. I want to believe him, but I can't get the image of her saying 'no' out of my head.

I nod to him, but before he can go back to the others I stop him. "I think I'm just gonna head home. I can't focus and I'm not risking anything tonight, not with all of you in the wire".

"Jace, we came because you wanted to come. So, we are all leaving if you want. We're no splitting up especially after you just drank that much alcohol" he says pointing at the empty glasses on the counter. He grabs the others and we head home, me leaning on Alec part of the way as I start stumbling. The others are talking about something, but I can't really focus on it, thankfully Alec isn't speaking to me. Letting me have a little bit of quiet tonight.

We enter the institute and I give Alec my jacket to hang up, turning to go up to my room when I see something weird.

"Maryse?" I ask running over to her, the others following quickly, "what happened?"

"What are you talking about? Who are all of you?" she asks looking at us all wide eyed

"Mom" Iz starts, kneeling down and grabbing her shoulders, "why're you on the floor with blood on your temple?"

"Listen. I don't know who you people are, and I'm grateful that you're worried about me, but I'm fine" she says with Alec quickly yelling, "No you're not!"

I head over to Magnus and ask him what's going on, but he whistles to get everyone's attention. "Her memory's been wiped and I would presume it's from that strange rune on her arm" he points out. Alec tries to cancel it, but nothing works. This is a Clary rune and the only way to cancel a Clary rune is with another Clary rune.

Alec and Simon help Maryse to one of the couches, and I stay talking to Magnus about where we go from here.

"Uh, guys?" Iz says grabbing the attention of all of us. She points to a trail of blood going up the stairs that definitely doesn't belong there. Maryse has fallen asleep again, so the rest of us head up with weapons out, prepared for an ambush or something. We follow the blood trail up the first two flights of stairs until they are darker and redder. We continue down the hallway seeing bloody handprints on the wall and paintings that had been knocked down, blood on them too. Then we came to Clary's old room here. She kept it for when we would have bad arguments and also as a place to draw and paint.

We open the door and all nearly throw up, partially from the smell and partially from what we found in the room. There's blood everywhere and a body in the middle that is unrecognizable with its head bashed in. This thing had been carved open like someone was trying to perform a very brutal autopsy, but there is only one body.

"Guys" everyone looks at me, "Maryse said that Clary was not feeling good so she didn't want to go tonight. That guy Zach also didn't go tonight and he stayed here. The other two who came with him went to meet up with someone in town. We found Maryse, but where's Clary?" I point out

"Jace we don't know where Zach is either-" Alec starts

"We do. This is him Alec, the height matches, the color of the one partial eye and the clothes it's wearing. This has to be him" Iz states and we all realize she's right. The purple converse on the feet and the matching purple beanie on the head. This is Zach. Isabelle continues, "We just need to find Clary".

Iz and I go to search the rest of the Institute while Alec, Magnus and Simon head back down to Maryse.

Alec P.O.V.

I put in a call to the Clave while the other two check on my mom. I see the front door open and Samara and Ryan walk in looking around at everything going on.

"Guys" I yell after finally hearing back from the Clave, "apparently someone hit the Clave too. They have about six members that they know of who are having the same effects as Maryse. They can't remember anything about themselves or where they are. They are sending a few members who are still themselves."

Looking over at the two by the door, I know that I'm the best one to do this right now. The only other two good at this are not in the best states right now. "Samara, I don't know exactly how to tell you this, but your brother was killed tonight." Both of them get wide eyes, "We don't know what happened and we are currently trying to locate another member of the institute-"

"It's the redhead isn't it?" Samara interrupts. We can hear Jace and Iz coming down the stairs, but now I'm confused.

"What is the redhead?" I ask, everyone paying attention to us at this time. A portal opens and the Clave members pop in and start talking, but I yell at them to shut up. I look back at Samara and signal for her to continue what she was saying.

"The redhead is the one missing isn't she? She's also the one who killed Zach, isn't she?"

"No!" Jace runs up and gets in her face. We would try to hold him back, but she just blamed one of our best friends for this for no reason. We might be a bit angry. "Clary wouldn't do this…SHE'S NOT A MURDERER!" He yells in her face.

Iz yells at us all to shut up and brings the Clave members up to speed with what's happening. They ask who the last one to see Zach alive was and we say Maryse and Clary. They take a look at Maryse and also go look at Zach (or what's left of him), coming back to sit us all down.

"We must do what is best for the Shadow World and while we understand that you are all close to each other and her, we have no choice at the moment. This is from what happened tonight not only to Mr. Greene and Mrs. Lightwood" Brother Ryan point at Maryse, "but also what happened to our Clave members and the fact that someone broke into the archives of the Clave. We don't know what they took."

Everyone looks at each other before looking back at the Clave members.

"We are in a state of emergency. The daughter of Valentine is against us, harming us in whatever ways necessary to do what she wants. We must put out an order for her arrest, but if unattainable in that way, then an order for her death."

Everyone's heart drops.

"Does anyone know where she is or might be?" we all shake our heads.

' _Now we just gotta find Clary before they do. She won't go down for something she didn't do. I swear it"_.

Clary P.O.V.

I stop at the front door to the institute and raise my hand to knock, but then get an idea. Grabbing my stele I think of a rune, one to block my position. I can't risk being found by anyone, not until I at least can say with certainty that the kids are here. I imagine the rune "invisible" and put it on my left shoulder. They won't be able to locate me until I take it off or at least weaken it.

Putting my stele away, I ring the doorbell and wait for it to open. Once it does, a girl's face pops up and instantly looks confused. "Can I help you?" she asks

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I don't have anywhere else to go and was wondering if I might be able to stay here." I say with a sad, almost to tears voice.

"What are you?" She asks and I look at her confused, "I mean Shadowhunter, Wolf, Vampire, etc."

"Oh. I'm a shadowhunter." I say and earn a smile from the girl.

"Come on in" she says, holding the door open for me. "My name is Sara and I'll show you to your room". As we walk up the stairs, she turns to me, "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name" she says

"Amatis. Amatis Graymark" I say earning a look from her.

"Amatis, that's a strange name" she replies.

We stop outside my room and I turn to her, "It's a …family name."

She smiles at me and we walk into the room. Looking around the room, I smile to thank her for the hospitality, but the room looked pretty much the same as my old one from the New York Institute. I touch the bed set lightly and it's soft, I go look through the window and all you can see are mountains.

"Well Amatis" she says and I turn to her, "Welcome to Los Angeles" she says smiling before she leaves.

I go and shut the door, locking it.


	6. The Search Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! Sorry that it's been a bit since the previous chapter went up, but this one is getting done now. I hope you all have been enjoying this story and please leave a review to let me know what you think about it. With that said, let's get onto the story!

Two Weeks Later

Clary P.O.V.

Sitting on the bathroom floor and sweating after throwing up was not how I pictured my morning going today, but it's what happened. I am trying to think of what I could have, but nothing came to mind; no likeness to a cold or anything worse than that and if it was food poisoning then I should still be vomiting. Being so out of the blue, I decide that it's better not to worry the others over something so minimal, so I get up and clean myself up. While I'm brushing my teeth someone knocks on my door and opens it soon after, quickly noticing why I didn't respond.

"What's up?" I ask after spitting and rinsing.

"The others are here if you wanna come say hi" she tells me with a smile

"Yeah, sure. Just give me a minute to change." I say walking over to the closet, "So, how many people am I meeting again?"

"There are five people that I live here with all year round, the rest are just here until they find somewhere else to go. So five people at most." She replies.

Nodding my head, I look at all the clothes in my closet and pull out something to wear, ultimately deciding on a black, lacy bodysuit, some navy blue leggings and some over the knee black combat boots with a five inch heel. Leaving the closet I head into the bathroom and check that my hair looks okay. It has grown out a little since I did my bob cut, now reaching more of a shoulder length, but it is still black as night and my eyes are still blue. _"The rune is still lasting, that's good"_ I think to myself. Leaving the bathroom I nod to Sara and we head out to the library so I can meet everyone.

Jace P.O.V.

The Clave left after telling us that there is a kill/capture order on Clary's head, scaring all of us at the thought of losing her. I understand that she said no to the marriage proposal, but I know Clary and I know she only said that because of something else going on – if only I knew what that was. We've been running around trying to find her for a few hours now and I agree to go to Pandemonium, who knows I mean maybe she wanted to go somewhere she could easily hide. On my way there, I decide to walk past her old place for the memories of all the times I would come to bring her home or pick her up for training, every night that I would come over in the middle of the night just to have her in my arms when I woke up.

But what I saw wasn't those happy memories that I was so fond of, but something of a nightmare. All of those memories were ashes now as I look at the charred remains of the apartment building, letting some of it sift through my fingers as I watch it fall to the ground. Looking at the empty space where it used to be is like a knife in the heart, but this is when I need Clary. Taking one more look at it, I run over to the institute hoping that someone found her and that she is safe and sound. I had already tried calling her which didn't go through and already tried using my parabati connection with Alec which also failed.

Getting home, I can see the Silent Brothers working with Clave members and Maryse to try and regain their lost memories, but I also see Alec and the rest of the huddled in a group, whispering amongst themselves. Walking over to them, their conversation stops which tells me that they were talking about me.

"I went back to Clary's old apartment building, but it was burnt to ashes. It's gone." I tell them

"Do you think Clary did it?" Alec asks me

"Well-" I start, but end up getting interrupted

"No, she wouldn't. It's Clary, she would never burn down or destroy something that means so much to her" Simon states.

"If she's trying to hide somewhere then it makes sense that she would do everything to cover her tracks. That means she did something or put something in that building that she deemed dangerous to herself or someone else, so she burned it." Magnus puts into the conversation. "Jace is there a possibility of something having lasted through the fire or was it all gone?"

"All of it. Nothing could have lasted that, I mean it took down the apartment building, that means the fire had to be burning for quite some time" I reply.

"Okay." Izzy starts, "Who killed Zach? Who erased Maryse and the Clave members' memories? Who broke into the archives and what did they take? Who burned down the house, and if it was Clary then what was she trying to hide? Where is Clary and why has she disappeared for two weeks? Is she safe or in danger?"

Alec looks at me wondering if I want to bring up the proposal, but I shake my head no just enough for him to see it. There are too many things going on right now for me to be worried about that, it's stupid to dwell on it anyways. I pull him away from the others.

"What were you guys talking about before I got here? You were murmuring to each other and you all went silent as soon as I took a step towards you. What is it?" I ask him, needing to know what was going on.

"Jace, say Clary did do all of this, would you be able to handle that? I've seen you go through some things, but you always made it back because of Clary. I'm just worried that if she did end up becoming like Valentine and Sebastian that you wouldn't be able to come back to us." Alec told me.

"But she wouldn't, Clary loves being a Shadowhunter. What if she's just on a mission Alec? We're messing with our heads thinking this is Clary, but in the end it will just show her having been on a mission" I reply to him with a laugh.

Giving me a sad look, Alec informs me, "We asked the Clave members who still had the memories if it's possible she was sent on a mission, but none of them could find a file for a mission like that. They couldn't even find her file Jace, it's as if she disappeared from the Shadow World all together."

I slide down the wall and put my head in my hands, Alec kneeling down to help me. I can feel tears stinging my eyes and I know my head is hearing what they are all saying, but my heart is in denial.

"Alec, I came back after everything with Valentine and the whole 'being siblings' thing because of Clary. Then Max died and it nearly destroyed all of us, but Clary was there to help us get through it and we did. Lilith bringing Sebastian back and everything he did to us afterwards, including taking me hostage, I came back from it all. Because of Clary. But, if Clary truly became like her father and brother, I don't know if I could come back from that. And if I had to be the one to put her down, that would kill me no matter if she had turned or not." I tell him in hopes that he would understand and I see him nodding to me.

Alec P.O.V.

"I'll find her Jace. No one else is in the state to be able to search and you're needed here, but I'll find her and bring her home. We are all too emotionally involved in this, but I'm the only one strong enough to do it right now." I tell him, seeing his shoulders relax immediately. I run up to my room and grab a bag, filling it with clothes, bathroom products, some money, some weapons, some maps and lists, and anything else that could end up being important. I head back downstairs and tell everyone my plan, how I would find her and bring her home. Some tried to talk me out of it, but they all knew that I wasn't gonna take no for an answer.

"How are you gonna do this Alec?" Izzy asks as I'm putting on my jacket, everyone watching with anticipation while Iz also hugs Jace who's just a wreck.

"I have a list of every institute, their addresses and their locations. I'm gonna go visit them and see if I can find her. I'm gonna start with our neighbors around us and work my way over to places like Washington and California. I'm not coming back until I find her dead or alive, so I don't know how long I'll be gone" I finish. I give everyone hugs and head out, making a portal using my stele and I head to the first institute.

Clary P.O.V.

I met the others living here and they seem like cool people. There are Ryan, Myra, Eric, Daryl and William, but there are about 100 in total. They don't seem like bad people so it makes me doubt that the children are here, but I also haven't been able to snoop and look. They are always here, I mean always! Don't they ever leave to go hunting or something just to get out of the house? Apparently not.

I'm eating lunch with Sara when someone knocks on the door, but we ignore it as someone else answers the door. We can't hear much of the conversation, just some muffled yelling so we find it safe to assume that they don't like the person at the door. I excuse myself from the table and head out to see what's going on, now able to hear little bits of their conversation.

" _We can't hold them here much longer, the Clave will come looking and we're not going down for you"_

" _Look, we have what we need from them okay? Get rid of this new girl living here long enough to X them."_

" _No. You can do it, I'm don't getting my hands bloody for you"_

I hear a thump and turn my head around the corner and nearly gasp out loud, covering my mouth with my hand quickly. I see Myra being held by the throat and pinned to the wall by a woman that I can't recognize from where I am. I pop out of my spot and walk over to them, making my presence known very quickly as they both looked at me with eyes open wide as saucers. The other girl ran out of the building refusing to let me get a look at her, but I ignore it for now.

"You okay? What was that about?" I ask Myra, but she just shakes her head and calls the girl crazy. I bring up the idea of going on a walk as it might help her and she agrees, so we grab our coats and head out. After walking for an hour, I find this shed that looks run down and invite her to come look at it with me and she agrees as she thinks it looks cool. Once she comes inside and shuts the door behind herself, I slam the back of the shovel against her head knocking her out. She knows where the children are and I need that information, so I pick her up and put her in the chair. Tying her hands and feet up, I also put on one of my runes so she won't be able to get out. I put some tape over her mouth and pull out all of my weapons. I make sure the door is locked and grab another chair, sitting there watching her until she awakes.

"Don't worry Myra, you won't feel it long after you wake as I can't allow you to live." I say to her unconscious form.

If anyone had been watching, they could have sworn that my hair turned white and my eyes went black during this time.


	7. The Interrogation Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! Sorry about the long wait for this chapter! I know that it's been a while, but that doesn't matter now, as you have a new chapter coming your way! Please leave a review and let me know what you think of the story so far. With that all said, let's get onto the story!

Clary P.O.V.

I walk around the shed while waiting for Myra to wake up, better her to do it herself than anything else. I find a broken mirror and pick it up to inspect it, deciding to keep it around. I find other routes that she could use as exits such as broken windows and another door and quickly seal them off, if she gets away then this would all be for nothing as she would sell me out to the others. If she does that then those children won't be alive for much longer as they would get slaughtered soon after. I'm here to save them…no matter the cost.

Walking back over to where Myra is, I can see that she's slowly coming to. She's making noises and her head is slightly moving, a sure tell that she isn't in the deep unknown anymore. Grabbing my chair again, I turn it around and sit back down, continuing to watch her until she awakes. I grab my knife and start to turn it around and around in my hand, just something to do to waste time. I look at my watch and see that it's about 12:45pm, it's a good thing no one was home when we left so no one knows we're together. I look at the mirror again and check to make sure that my disguise is still how it's supposed to be, but I don't see it. My appearance is changing and I can feel myself changing with it, my mood going from inquisitive to angry.

I hear her moan and look over at her to see her eyes blinking open, a way for her to get used to the light coming from cracks in the top of the shed. Looking at my watch, it now says 2:15pm, so she got a good sleep from this at least. Sighing, I stop spinning my knife and stand up, kicking the chair away to get it out of the way. I walk over to her and kneel so I can be eye to eye with her, making sure she's fully aware of what's happening.

"Hello, Myra" I say as the shock appears on her face

"Amatis, what's happening? Where are we? Why is your hair white and your eyes black?" she asks

"It doesn't matter where we are, nor do my looks matter." I can hear myself say as I see my hand reach out and pick up a knife, "All that matters is how long it takes for me to get the information I need".

I can hear my voice asking questions and I can see my hands reaching out, grabbing things, but I'm not doing it. It's like something's taken over my body, I can't control anything other than my thoughts, but that isn't helping.

"What's going on with Jocelyn? How were you getting your hands bloody for her?" I hear myself ask and feel my head turn to look at her, only to see her shake it to say no, that we had it all wrong.

I walk over to her and take the knife, stabbing it into her shoulder and ripping it upwards to tear the shoulder bone. She screams in pain, but keeps up the act of not knowing what I'm talking about. I then take the knife and lay it above one of her eyebrows, digging it into the skin and dragging it until I had cut off her eyebrow completely. She screams as I cut, begging me to stop and telling me that she really doesn't know what I'm talking about. I watch her new wound begin to bleed and the blood runs down her face as her eye shuts to keep the blood out of it.

"I can keep this up as long as it takes, but you can only lose so much blood. How much is your life worth to you?" I ask her with a smirk, placing the knife level to the closed eye. She shakes her head quickly, "I don't know what you're talking about, I swear"

"Liars don't get to keep their eyes" I say as I jam the knife into her eye socket. She screams and tries to break out of her bonds to the chair, shaking the chair and trying to run. Her eye is squeezed shut so tightly that her eye would have popped had I not jammed a knife into it.

"So, feel like telling me what's going on now? Or do you wanna lose something else?" I ask her, this time the knife leveled at her ear. If I shove the knife in her ear then she loses all hearing there, no matter how much surgery she has done.

"Fine! Fine!" She gives, "Jocelyn came and asked us to hold onto something for her for a while. She would bring little bits at a time, but said she didn't have space for it. We didn't want to have anything to do with it anymore"

"What was it that Jocelyn had you hold on to?" I ask her, but she shakes her head, "it's nothing important I promise. It's nothing that would matter to you". I jab the knife in her thigh and pull it towards me, cutting her thigh open and letting blood flow down both sides. She screams, but I ignore it.

"What was it?" I repeat and she shakes her head again, so I grab a lemon that I brought and cut a slice of it, squeezing it on her thigh wound. This causes her to scream more and louder.

"It's children! Children that they took!" she yells out finally giving it up

"They? Who's this 'they' you're talking about?" I ask her. She's about to shake her head again, but I pick up the lemon and cut another slice, holding it by her eye, "think about this carefully, unless you want your eye to be next"

She breathes heavily, a mutters "Them. Jocelyn, Luke and Jordan. They've been dropping kids off to us for years, telling us that the kids were needed for something. They never told us what, just that we needed to hold them as they didn't have room for them."

"So, you wanted out? Why did you tell her that you guys were out of the deal?" I ask seeing the shock on her face, which tells me that she knows I overheard their last conversation. She stays silent so I grab her head and pull it backwards, squeezing the lemon into her eye.

"We didn't wanna get in trouble!" she yells as I let go of her hair, "We didn't want to be in trouble for aiding them and thought it better to end it now before it's too late."

I nod towards her and she begins looking side to side, the look that means they're wondering if it's all over or not. It's not.

"Who's this 'We'"? I ask and she looks scared. "You keep saying 'we did this' and 'we said that', which tells me that more people in this institute know about this. I wanna everyone that knows about these children and I wanna know where the children are being held".

I pick up the knife again and put it by her ear again, "You can either tell me or you can lose your hearing in your ear. It's your choice"


	8. The Interrogation Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! So I hope you are all enjoying this story and the way it's going, and I am sorry for the long wait for this chapter.

Clary P.O.V.

I pick up the knife again and put it by her ear again, "You can either tell me or you can lose your hearing in your ear. It's your choice". I see her squirming, trying to get away from the knife, but she can't move.

"Who is this 'we' you talked about?" I ask her again

"Please, don't do this" she stammers out, crying and struggling to breathe, "Please" she begs

Standing up, I pull the knife away from her ear and look at the damage done. Her face and shoulder, both doused in blood and part of her face missing, her left eye swollen from the lemon and shut in order to attempt to preserve her eye, and her thigh gashed open and swollen read from the lemon squeezed there. Sighing, I give her a look of despair, hoping for her to hurry up so I can end it quicker.

"This doesn't end until I get all of my answers. If you die before I get them then I just get another one of your people. I will go through all of your people if that's what I need to do in order to get what I want" I say, crouching down in front of her again, leveling the knife at her ear again, "Now, who is this 'we' you mentioned?"

"Me and some of the other people in the institute! We! Us!" she screams out quickly.

"So you and some of the others in the institute have helped Jocelyn and her two minions hold children captive-"

"Yeas, but we wanted out. That's what we were talking about the other day when you heard me mention us not wanting to get our hands dirty." She says finishing my statement for me as I pull the knife away from her.

"Where are you holding the children?" I ask her calmly

"If I tell you and they find out, they'll kill me. I'm already dead if they find out what I've already told you" she says as she starts crying again

"They won't kill you, trust me. Where are the children? This is the last chance you get" I tell her while glaring at her and she nods.

"In the living room, under the rug there's a hatch that goes underground. The children are in there…well the ones that are still alive anyways." She tells me and my heart drops and a look of shock freezes on my face.

Quickly, I grab the knife and slit her throat, myself becoming coated in her blood quickly, but I can't get my heart out of my stomach. 'The ones that are still alive?' How many kids did they have? How many did they kill?

Is Max dead?

Alec P.O.V.

Stepping out of the portal, I see that I'm standing in front of yet another institute. "Five down, another hundred and something to go" I say to myself as I walk up to the door. Putting my hand into a fist, I knock loudly on the door hoping that Clary opens the door, but sadly that doesn't happen.

"Hi, can I help you?" this man asks

"Yeah, I'm looking for a friend who's gone missing and I'm wondering if anyone new has come to this institute in the last couple of weeks" I tell him

"I'm sorry about your friend, but we have actually had someone new come here. They got here a couple days ago, would you like to come and see him? I-"

"I'm sorry. The friend I'm looking for is a female. If you've only had a male come here then I really need to be moving on" I say interrupting him.

"That's okay, although I did hear from a friend of mine named Samara that a new girl appeared at the Los Angeles Institute. Maybe that could be who you're looking for. I have the name on a notepad if you want it" he tells me and I'm interested, this could be the lead I'm looking for.

"Yes, I'll take that. Although, while we're on the subject, do you mean Samara Greene?" I ask him as I follow him into his house, keeping a hand on my dagger just in case I need it.

"Yes, a sweet girl, but those brothers of hers are troublemakers I tell you. They destroyed my house a month ago, put it in flames and killed my daughters. I say no one will ever understand the pain of losing a child until they go through it and have to bury the babe themselves." He tells me while picking up the paper and ripping it off the pad.

"I'm sorry for your loss, but I am confused. Samara has one brother, Zachary, and a boyfriend, Ryan. Well had, Zachary is dead now. I wasn't aware that she had another brother or that they could be that dangerous" I tell him as I take the paper from him

"You have it wrong son" he tells me as he puts a hand on my shoulder and I look up at him, "them boys, Zachary and Ryan are her brothers, not a brother and a boyfriend. They've been known to cause havoc wherever they are" He leads me into the kitchen and points at the chair, taking the one opposite of me.

"How do they cause havoc? Do they all work together to do things?" I ask him

"Oh no, no, no. It depends on what they do. I heard of once when Samara had gone to a place with them boys, she had gone after a guy who was taken in order to do something. I don't know everything that happened, but after they had left that place, everyone who originally lived there ended up killing themselves" he tells me.

"But you called her a sweet girl. Why do so if she's also caused problems? Is my family in danger, having them there I mean?"

"I call her a sweet girl as I have only ever witnessed her being a sweet girl. Everything I have told you is what I've heard from other people who claim to have had them live with them. I do not believe your family to be in any immediate danger, but I would say to call them just to be certain" he tells me as I look at the piece of paper he gave me

"Um," I start, "I think you have the wrong name on here. The name you were given is of a dead woman, she died years ago after the battle with Jonathan Morgenstern. I know, she was family to the girl who's now gone missing." I finish telling him, but the man shakes his head

"That's the name I was told. I asked how to spell it and that's what I was told. Was even given a little bit of a description, black hair that was short but has grown since she arrived and eyes a dark shade of blue. I can imagine that she's a beauty to behold, but if what you say is true then should we warn those in the institute?" he asks me, but I shake my head to say no

"It's best if we keep this between us for now. I think I know what's going on here, but it's safer to stay quiet about this for now. Thank you for the information" I say as I stand up from the table, "but I need to get going."

He nods and walks me to the front door, "Have a wonderful evening and I hope you find your missing friend" he says right before he shuts the door.

I pull out my stele and draw another portal. _"I finally have a lead, I need to follow it. This could be my only chance to find Clary"_ I think to myself before drawing another portal, this time aiming for the Los Angeles Institute.


	9. The Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feel free to leave a review to let me know what you think of this story or if you have any ideas for it. Finally, I would like to thank all of you for supporting this story where it stands. With that all said, let's get onto the story!

Alec P.O.V.

I land from the portal and look up to find myself at the Los Angeles Institute, _'Hopefully that man was telling me the truth about her'_ I think to myself before going up the stairs and knocking on the door. The door opens and this girl opens it.

"Hello, can I help you?" She asks with a smile on her face

"Yes. this girl opens it.

"Hello, can I help you?" She asks with a smile on her face

"Yes. You see, I was informed by a good friend of mine that this institute was taking in shadowhunters without a place to stay and I came in hopes of being able to stay." I tell this girl, hoping that she'd let me in.

"Oh, well of course you can stay here. Why don't you come on in and I'll get a room set up for you." she tells me as I nod to say thanks, hoping she would get it. I follow her into the building and it looks like the same layout as the one in New York, which tells me that I might not get as homesick here as I thought I would.

"Can I ask you something, miss?" I ask her as I follow her up the stairs

"Oh! My name is Sara and yeah you can ask me anything."

"Have you gotten any other newcomers recently? I'm hoping that I'm not the only one here that's new to the area" I tell her while adding some nervousness to my voice.

"We got one new person about a month and a half ago, but she doesn't really talk to us much. Prefers to stay in her room and do her own thing, training when we're asleep and hunting on her own. Although, she did go hunting with my brothers the other night which surprised us all."

"At least I'm not alone. Does she have a name? What does she look like?" I ask as my heart starts beating faster.

"Her name is Amatis Greymark. When she came here she had short black hair – bob length- but it's grown out now to be a little longer than shoulder level. She has dark blue eyes and generally wears more revealing clothing than anything. Think lacy tops with black bottoms and some kind of boot." She tells me.

Hm. This doesn't sound like Clary, but it could be her if she were on the run. Or maybe she's on a mission from the Clave and had to change her appearance for the mission. Either way, I need to get some answers before the Clave finds her.

We get upstairs and she lets me into a room, leaving soon after telling me that I could find her in the kitchen if I need anything. Looking around the room quickly, I step out into the hallway and walk down the hallway, knocking on every door and peeking in every room hoping to find hers. Apparently she and I are not in the same hallway though, as every room in my hallway is a boys' room. Sighing, I walk back downstairs in hopes of meeting up with Sara to get some more answers.

I'm halfway down the stairs when the front door opens and the girl Sara described walks in, her hair straight and wearing a blue crop top and a black leather skirt. She has on some thigh high boots and I would bet anything that she has too many weapons to count hidden on her person. Stepping down a few more steps, I catch her eye as she turns around.

Clary P.O.V.

Max can't be dead, he's the reason I'm out here. I mean, yeah I'm gonna save the other children too, but Max is my little brother. It's my job to save him. Looking at the corpse of Myra in front of me, I feel a little sorrowful for what I did, but it was necessary. Grabbing her by her pits, I drag her to the back of the shed and stomp her head in, hoping to erase facial recognition. I take my knife and remove her finger prints and the prints from her toes, hoping that this would prevent people from using that as a way to determine who she is.

Stepping back, I head back over to the chair I sat in and pick up the mirror to check my facial appearance only to see blood streaked on my face. I look down and my clothes are covered in blood, a good majority coming from the hit that killed her. Sighing, I pull out my stele and draw a rune to change my outfit and another one to remove the blood from myself. Looking down at myself again, I can see myself in thigh high boots, a leather skirt and a crop top – not a drop of blood in sight. Taking one more look towards Myra I leave the shed and head back down the road towards the institute.

Arriving at the door, I take in a deep breath and head inside, turning only to close the door and lock it. However when I turn back around, I see Alec standing on the stairs staring at me like I was a ghost or something. I open my mouth to say something when the aroma of food hits my nose from the kitchen and it sends me to the bathroom where I start vomiting quickly. Alec runs in and pats my back, holding my hair out of the way, but I can't focus on anything right now. My eyes water and my vision goes blurry, but the vomiting soon stops and turns into dry heaving, with Alec helping me to lean against the wall while sitting.

"Are you okay?" He says while reaching up and wetting a rag for me.

"I'm fine. Who are you? Why did you help me?" I ask taking the rag from him roughly.

"You were throwing up, only a jerk wouldn't help a girl who's so clearly ill. Have you been sick for a while?" He asks and I shake my head to say no while I hold the wet rag to my forehead.

"I'm not sick, just certain foods I can't really stand the smell of. Never could. They make me nauseous so I tend to avoid them, but I just wasn't able to today."

"Okay, I was just checking to make sure you don't have anything" he says and stands up.

"Wait. Who are you?" I ask, partially not believing that it could be him, but also needing that confirmation that it is in fact him.

"My name's Alec. I'm from an institute in New York and I'm here to find someone."

"Who are you looking for? Maybe I can help" I tell him.

"Well, I'm looking for two people. The first one is a girl named Clarissa Fray and the second one is a lady named Amatis Greymark."

Standing up, I put the rag on the counter and turn towards him, "You found Amatis, right in front of you. Clarissa however…isn't available right now" I say before exiting the restroom and heading upstairs. He of course follows me, but remains silent until we reach my room. We enter and he shuts the door behind him, finally saying something.

"You know, I didn't know whether to believe that was your real name or not. I knew someone else with the exact name – only lady I knew with the name Amatis- but she died in Idris. So when I was told that there was someone with the same name, I had to check it out." He says looking around the room at what little there is to see.

"Well, I can't help the fact that my name is the same as someone who died. It's my name. End of story." I say and he claps his hands together loudly, rubbing them against each other.

"So, where's Clary? I kinda need to talk to her…its important." he says

"She isn't available right now. Try again later" I say leaning against my desk and glaring at him.

"When will she be available?"

"She will never be available! She is a very busy woman!" I yell at him

"Look! My family needs to know! She's in danger!"

"What do you mean she's in danger? In danger of what?" I ask calming myself down slightly.

"The Clave is after her, believing she killed a member of our institute. I need to find her and get answers as to what happened or else she's gonna die. They have a kill/capture order on her head, believing she's a menace to the populace".

"They're too late then" I say making him freeze and give me a look, "I just killed her, so I guess they got what they wanted".

Alec P.O.V.

"They're too late then" she says making me stop in my tracks and look at her in shock, "I just killed her, so I guess they got what they wanted".

She's dead? She can't be. This Amatis girl in front of me has so many little ticks of Clary's…she has to be Clary. I mean, she has to be. Doesn't she?


	10. When Reality Hits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! So, I hope that you are enjoying this story so far as it has been so much fun to write. Please don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you think of the story so far and with that said, let's get onto the story.

Alec P.O.V.

"Are you sure she's dead? I mean…are you sure that you killed Clary?" I ask her, trying to make sense of this.

"I can take you to her if you want, but you need to be able to handle the situation. I don't want you throwing up or anything."

"Oh, like you were earlier?" I say snapping at her, "Take me to her. I have to make sure that it's Clary" and she nods.

I follow her out of the room and out of the institute, hoping in my heart that she's wrong. "How are you so calm about this anyway?" My voice starts rising and I start speaking faster.

"Once you kill a certain number of people" she steps off the road and into the woods, turning to me after, "you stop feeling strong emotions about it." She continues walking deeper into the woods and nothing is making sense. If she did kill Clary out here then how did she even get Clary out here? How was she able to overcome Clary all on her own? Why did she kill her?

"So, how exactly did you end up getting Clary out here?" I ask

"I didn't put her on a leash and drag her if that's what you're thinking. I told her that there was a pack of demons here that we needed to kill, but she refused and said that she needed to work on making some new runes for the clave. I needed her out here though, so I used that reverse psychology thing. Told her that we didn't need a weakling like her out here only causing us problems and next thing I know, she snuck out of her window to kill them on her own. I found her and followed her."

We stop in front of this run down shed and she looks to me, "you sure you wanna see this?"

"Yeah" I reply, "I have to know if it's her"

"You know, you're one concerned boyfriend of hers." She says opening the door and walking in, "didn't think anyone actually cared about her"

"I'm not her boyfriend. She's dating my brother, but right now we have some stuff going on at home. My sister and I are the only sane ones right now, but she's needed out there to help them out."

"Sorry" she says as she leads me to the very back of the shed, "just assumed that…ya know, you're the one who came for her so you gotta be the boyfriend" she stops walking. At our feet is the corpse of a young girl, her head has been smashed in and I go to grab the hand to use the fingerprints, but they've been cut off. The hair however, is a blondish color while Clary's is red.

"You good now?" she asks, but I'm not completely certain that this is her.

"Why is the hair blonde?"

"She must have dyed it before coming out here. She attempted to infiltrate our group as she believed us to have kidnapped some children. I had to interrogate her and find out who sent her, but when we were done, I couldn't let her live. She would've sold me out and we'd both end up going down" she replies to me before continuing, "can we go now?"

"There's only one way to know if this is her" Amatis looks confused, "Jace gave her his family ring, but it was too big for her to wear so she put it on a chain around her neck. It was the most important thing she ever got." I say reaching down and turning the body on its back, noticing the chain around the neck, "if this is her then-" I freeze.

There around the neck was the ring reflecting the sunlight. The same ring that Jace gave her so long ago…I fall to the ground and my eyes start watering, realizing what this means. I want to cry so badly, but I can't right now. I have to let the Lightwoods know what happened here. I don't care what happens now, just so long as this girl goes down for Clary's death.

Twenty minutes later, I'm at the institute in my room and am trying to figure out how to word this, but I can't just mention Clary. 'They need to know everything. About those new people living with them. About this girl. Everything.'

_Dear Jace,_

_My travels out here have served well. I have met with some new people, some who run other institutes and others who are shadowhunters in training. Not many people know of what's currently happening at the NY Institute and I've been lying my butt off to everyone so as not to give anything away. I didn't want to do it, but I needed to find some answers. I met this old man at the Pennsylvania Institute who has apparently met Zachary, Samara and Ryan – but I did inform him of Zachary's passing. It seems our newfound roommates have not been completely honest with us. The old man told me that they're all siblings and that they were the cause of his daughters' demise. Guess they really didn't want the past to catch up with them, huh?_

_I arrived at the Los Angeles Institute a day ago now, but have already encountered some setbacks. You remember Amatis, right? Luke's sister? Apparently there is a girl here with the exact same name. She doesn't seem to care that the other one is dead, just that it's her name. the weird thing is though she acts an awful lot like Clary, crossing the arms a good bit and snapping at others. Although speaking of Clary, I do have some unfortunate news of her. She was killed by this "Amatis" girl…not sure how long ago though. I found your ring on the chain around her neck - I'm sorry. I don't want to have to tell you this, but you need to know and so does everyone else. I won't tell you what happened to her, how she died or why…you don't need to know that. I will be coming home in a few days with the body so we can give her a proper burial._

_Sincerely,_

_Alec_

Clary POV

Alec went up to his room and I had said I would be going to bed soon too, but it seems he ignored me as he stormed up the stairs. He said that he had to inform his family of what happened, so I guess he's doing that now. William had texted me asking if I'd seen Myra, but when I said no, he said they were all out looking for her. He refused to come back without his sister.

Once I hear Alec's door shut I run to the living room, hoping that information I got was reliable. I grab the corner of the rug and pull it back to find a latch on the floor, locked with a locking rune. I quickly pull out my stele and unlock it, but the door flies open, making a large banging sound. Gritting my teeth, I wait for a moment in case anyone heard it, needing to know if I had to put it back or not. However, after a few minutes, I decide that no one's coming and I head down the ladder of the passage.

Hitting the bottom with a thud, I look around and realize that I'm at an intersection. There's a passage to my left, right and straight ahead of me. Sighing loudly, I start walking straight, but as I do I pass by cells…they look like prison cells. I don't see anything in them so I just pass by, but what are they doing here? I backtrack to the ladder when I reach the end of the tunnel and then I go to the right path, hoping to find something in there.

Upon the first cell, I scream and cover my mouth with my hands in hopes of muffling the sound. There are two children in the cell, but they're not moving. Looking closer at them, I can see that they're not even breathing. My eyes go wide and tears threaten to fall as I quickly look away and run further down the passage, skimming over other cells with children in them. There are other dead children in other cells, but then I see ones who are still alive and I feel like I can finally breathe again.

I fall to my knees in front of one of the cells and call out for anyone inside there, hoping to get an answer back, but only silence comes.

"Clary?" I hear from a cell a bit further down the hall and I run to it, "Clary? Is that you?" the kid asks and I gasp. "Max?"


	11. It Hits Hard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! So I know I know that this is the second chapter posted this week, but this story was behind where it was supposed to be. Basically, I fucked up so all of you get a bonus chapter this week! Please make sure to leave a review and let me know what you think of the story so far! With that all said, let's get onto the story!

Jace POV

When you hear that the love of your life is wanted for the murder of some guy you never knew, what do you do? I'm still trying to figure it out, but can't come up with a reasonable answer to it other than follow the law. I don't want that though, as it means Clary has to die. I'm in a dark place and having my sister constantly trying to hug me isn't helping.

"Iz, get off of me!" I yell and push her away,

"You're hurting Jace, I know you are-"

"Yeah and it'll end as soon as Alec comes back with Clary." I say quickly, but I can't get rid of this feeling like she's in trouble or something.

Iz starts to say something, but a light distracts us. A clave member grabs it and says it's for me, from Alec. I run over and rip the letter open, ready to read that Clary's okay and that this is all just one big misunderstanding. I clear my throat and begin reading the letter out loud to everyone:

_Dear Jace,_

_My travels out here have served well. I have met with some new people, some who run other institutes and others who are shadowhunters in training. Not many people know of what's currently happening at the NY Institute and I've been lying my butt off to everyone so as not to give anything away. I didn't want to do it, but I needed to find some answers. I met this old man at the Pennsylvania Institute who has apparently met Zachary, Samara and Ryan – but I did inform him of Zachary's passing. It seems our newfound roommates have not been completely honest with us. The old man told me that they're all siblings and that they were the cause of his daughters' demise. Guess they really didn't want the past to catch up with them, huh?_

_I arrived at the Los Angeles Institute a day ago now, but have already encountered some setbacks. You remember Amatis, right? Luke's sister? Apparently there is a girl here with the exact same name. She doesn't seem to care that the other one is dead, just that it's her name. The weird thing is though she acts an awful lot like Clary, crossing the arms a good bit and snapping at others. Although speaking of Clary, I do have some unfortunate news of her. She was killed by this "Amatis" girl…not sure how long ago though. I found your ring on the chain around her neck - I'm sorry. I don't want to have to tell you this, but you need to know and so does everyone else. I won't tell you what happened to her, how she died or why…you don't need to know that. I will be coming home in a few days with the body so we can give her a proper burial._

_Sincerely,_

_Alec_

I freeze where I am, not paying attention to anyone else. She's dead and he won't even tell me how she died? I guess that's for the best. I can feel my eyes watering and I run upstairs before anyone can see the tears, trying to be strong. I enter my room and break down, but not for long. I can't get it out of my mind that she isn't dead, that this is just a big fraud. Is he even sure that it's Clary? Moving quickly I grab a bag and throw in clothing and weapons, refusing to stop for anything. I grab my stele and make my portal, going out to Los Angeles to double check all of this.

I land in front of the institute and barge right in, demanding to know where Alec's room is. Some girl, whose name I don't care about, shows me the way, trying to give me her number the entire way up. I get to the room and throw the door open, scaring Alec.

"Show me her body. Now."

"Jace-" he starts, but I'm not playing any games right now.

"Show. Me. Her. Body. Alec. Now!" and he nods, quickly throwing on some shoes. We run out of the institute ignoring the looks we're given.

We arrive at this shed and I look at him uncertain, but he goes in there so I follow. We step through the doorway and walk to the very back of the run-down shed, every sound making me think the place is gonna give way. We get to the back and he removes a black sheet from over the corpse, not saying a word. I take one look at it and smile, laughing even.

"Dude, you're laughing at your dead girlfriend's body? What the hell is wrong with you Jace?" he says as if he's sick, but I can't stop smiling.

"This isn't her" I say and he freezes.

"What? Yeah it is, she even has your ring around her neck" he replies trying to make a point.

"Alec, this isn't Clary. That ring is either fake or a double, but look at the body. This is too tall to be Clary, I mean even when she's in heels she isn't this tall. There's also the fact that the hands are hard and extremely calloused plus quite large, while hers are soft and calloused, just not that much. Then there's the shape of the face: this one is square while Clary's is rounder. Finally the shoe size" I say taking off one of the shoes, "this is a size 9 , but clary is a 7. This isn't my girlfriend".

He looks at me shocked for a while, "Damn. Do you know your girlfriend or what? Anyways, if this isn't Clary then who the hell is it? He asks

"Don't know, don't care. Where's Clary?" I ask and he smirks.

"Right under our noses apparently. Gotta give her points for being smart" he says and we head back to the institute. However when we get back, we are told that a girl named Myra is still missing and now Amatis is as well.

"Amatis? Amatis Graymark?" I ask and they all nod.

"She died years ago in the war against Jonathan Morgenstern" I say, but they shake their head.

"There is another girl, she lives here with us. Her name is Amatis Graymark, but she always denies any knowledge of another woman having her name" they say as Alec and I look at each other. I think I just found my Clary.

Clary POV

"Clary?" I hear from a cell a bit further down the hall and I run to it, "Clary? Is that you?" the kid asks and I gasp. "Max? Is that you? What happened to you?" I ask quickly

"That's no one of your concern little one" I hear a voice and turn to look at them, "how did you find out about this place?"

"Come into the light and I'll answer your question" I tell them and they do, but it's not who I was expecting. "Why did you do this?" I ask, but then everything goes black. No, I'm not unconscious, a bag was just put over my head and my hands tied behind my back. I feel myself hit something hard, but I'm picked up again and sat somewhere. The bag comes off of my head and I see that I'm tied to a chair. Looking up I see that redheaded woman looking at me, expecting something.

"How did you find out about this place?" she asks and I smirk

"I found your friend Myra and decided to see just how strong she was. Apparently when you use the right methods with her you can get just about anything you want" I tell her and she growls.

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted that weakling. Well Clarissa you should be happy, seeing as you get to face the same fate as her" she says and I laugh.

"You're wrong. My name isn't Clarissa, so you'll just be killing the wrong person." I tell her and she laughs, snapping her fingers to signal someone. I see a shadow to my left out of my peripheral vision and when they step into the light, I can't help but gasp. While I'm distracted though, she takes the stele and cancels my disguise rune.

With the rune cancelled, my eyes go back to green and my hair color goes back to red. "You were smart Clarissa, smarter than a lot of other people. I could let you live if you'd join us, but I know you won't do that. So, you can sit here until the time of your execution" she says before dragging Luke out of the room.

Looking around me, there isn't a weapon anywhere, but the chair isn't chained down or anything so I stand up to the best of my ability and smash the chair into the ground, feeling it shatter under me as my back decides to cry out from the pain. Struggling, I get up and head for where Luke came in, finding the door locked. I reach into my hair and grab a hair pin and use that to unlock the door, seeing that it leads me back into the three tunnels again.

Running over to the cells, I use the hair pin to unlock the ones where I find the living children. I grab them and go for the ladder when I hear the carpet up top moving, so I get the children back and we hide inside a random room I found. Digging around, I can't find a stele or anything to really help us out of this situation, so we just wait.


	12. Things Coming Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! So here we are with Chapter 12! I hope that you guys are enjoying this story so far as it has been a good long time in the making. I'm will say that we are starting to get a little close to the end, but you guys do have a few more chapters coming your way. If you guys have any questions or comments then please leave them in a review for me. With that all said let's get onto the story!

Isabelle POV

I ran up after Jace, worried about what he would do after reading that letter, but when I got to his room I saw that he wasn't there. Thinking that he might be in the greenhouse I went up there, but got the same result, so I went back downstairs.

"He's gone. He went upstairs, but he isn't in his room or the greenhouse. The training room and everything else is down here, so I don't know where he went." I admit to them.

"It doesn't matter" Brother Ryan interjects, "Clarissa is dead and the shadow world is safe once again. With that knowledge we will be making our exit, but please share our condolences with your brothers Ms. Lightwood." He says before leaving the institute.

"I'll be right back" I tell Maggie and Simon before running back upstairs.

 _"It seems our newfound roommates have not been completely honest with us. The old man told me that they're all siblings and that they were the cause of his daughters' demise. Guess they really didn't want the past to catch up with them, huh?"_ _I repeat in my mind. Why would_ they lie to us over something so small? None of this is making any sense.

I get to their door and just barge in, not wanting them to have time to hide anything, but I end up finding Samara sitting at the desk while Ryan is lying on the bed. Both of them look up at me, but neither of them looks mad at me for interrupting whatever they were doing.

"Is everything okay Isabelle?" Samara asks me with a smile on her face that's faker than all of Jace's exes.

"Who are you two? Who was Zachary to you? I know that you're siblings and if you want to leave this institute unharmed then I suggest you tell me the truth. Who are you really?" I ask them, getting straight to the point.

"My name is Samara and this is my boyfriend Ryan. Zach was my brother before your friend killed him for no reason. What's this about?" She asks while pulling a file behind her back slowly.

I walk over and try to grab the file from her, but she fights and Ryan soon joins. I kick Ryan in the crotch and send him to his knees, while I rip the file away from Samara. I push her away and open the file before either one of them can stop me. I can't help, but freeze for a moment before finding my voice.

"Why do you have a file on Clary?" I ask them and they laugh sheepishly. "Who sent you here? It wasn't the Clave."

Jace POV

I wait until the others go away before pulling Alec into the library. "Do you have any ideas where she would have gone?" I ask him, but he shakes his head.

"I have no clue. I got here and met her soon after. She was throwing up and said that certain foods made her sick, but I didn't get much out of her. She's changed, but why?" he says and we both shrug. I get an idea and run upstairs telling him to show me where her room is. He shows me, but puts his arm out before I can go in.

"What are you doing Jace? Why are we even up here?" he asks and I put my hand up to shush him.

"Just stay here and let me know if she shows up. I'll come out when I'm done" I tell him before going into the room.

Stepping in, I can instantly see that it isn't how she would normally decorate a room. I pick up her pillows and dig around in the cases, but don't find anything. I look in her dresser drawers, behind her curtains, under the bed and even in the closet, but don't find anything there either. I go to sit on the bed when I notice that she has two mattresses and I'm able to remember her telling me that mundanes will hide things in their bed. I pick up the top mattress and see a file in the middle of the bed, so I grab it and then let the mattress down.

I sit on the bed and open the file, but it doesn't really tell me much of anything. I know her name and age, along with where she's from, but nothing more. Having run out of ideas of where to look, I pull out my phone and call Simon. He might have some ideas.

"Hello?"

"Simon, it's Jace. Don't tell the others, just listen. When you were a mundane and had to hide something in your room, where would you hide it?" I ask him, not wanting to bother with other conversation.

"Mundanes hide things in their desks, their pillowcases, in the closet, behind their curtains, in their vents, under the floorboards if they're able to make it look normal again, in the wall, and underneath furniture. They like to get creative with their hidey-holes." He says.

"Thanks" I say before hanging up on him. I look at the floor and see that it's carpet, so nothing could be under there. You couldn't take part of it out and then make it look normal again. Looking up at the ceiling I see a vent, so I grab the chair and climb up. Pulling the cover off, I realize that nothing's in there – so I put the cover back and move on.

I move along the wall and start tapping, hoping to get lucky and am actually able to find a hollow spot. I punch a hole there and rip away loose bits of drywall, only seeing the sketchbook when I was done. I open it and see all new runes, but none of them have names or descriptions which tells me that they haven't been tested yet. I head over to her dresser, but as I pass the mirror I see Clary in it, but not my Clary. This one is smirking and is covered in blood, it looks like a female Jonathon Morgenstern.

"You can't save her. You can't save them. They're too far gone" she says before disappearing. I walk away from the mirror and then walk back to it, hoping she'll show up again, but she doesn't. I think I'm hallucinating, but ignore it and go to the dresser. I look at the back and underneath it, but there's nothing there. I go back to her desk and see there's nothing underneath it, but there's a file taped to the back of it. Smiling, I grab the file and sit in her chair.

This file gave me everything. It said that she's here undercover and that her mission is to rescue some children. It goes into detail of everything she had to do in order to do the mission and it explains that she had taken Maryse's memories. It even gave a rune that could return her memories. Sighing, I run my hand through my hair before going to leave. I go to turn off the light, but my hand slips and knocks her keys off their hanger. The hanger came loose and there's a red button.

"Alec come in here real quick" I say, trying to this quick so we don't get caught.

He walks in and sighs, "What? She could come back any minute"

"I know, but do you know what this button's for?" I ask him and he looks legit shocked.

"No. We won't know until we push it though." He says and I nod. I push the button and we wait for something, but nothing happens. We turn off the light and head out.

"Wait. I left my phone in there" I say before running back to the room with Alec following me. Opening the door I yell for Alec who bolts into the room before freezing beside me.

We get into the room and see white writing all over the room suddenly. The writing reads messages like, "They're out to get me", "Can't trust anyone", "The voice told me to" and other ones. We spin around trying to read all of the messages. We hear a chuckle and both look to the mirror, seeing that girl. I run over to it trying to make sense of this.

"Are you Clary?" I ask while Alec is gaping.

"I'm a form. That bitch found a way to subdue me, but not for long. I'll be free soon and then the streets of blood will flow" she says before disappearing again.

We take another look around the room and see that her laptop's on, so I grab it and try to log in, but she changed her password. A video starts playing as if someone was recording her and Alec watches in horror along with me.

_Video  
"They're trying to kill me. They're all after me! Shut up! I won't do it!" she walks backwards to wall and something picks up the front of her shirt, but says nothing. She starts punching and kicking, but this thing throws her at the wall._

" _Jocelyn has to die. She has to. Sh-sh-she's the reason we're here. WOULD YOU SHUT UP!?" She yells at the wall before grabbing her head._

" _Gotta kill them. They have to die, they have to be punished. What about this don't you get?" she says with her hands shaking and her eye twitching. She grabs her head and yells something unintelligible before running to the window and jumping out of it._

_End of Video_

"We need to find her. Now" I tell Alec and we run out of the room, being sure to put her keys back and to press the button again. No one else needs to know about this.


	13. Getting Out Of There

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! So, I need to say a big thank you to you guys for supporting this story and giving it this much love. I am so excited that we've gotten this far into the story and I can't wait for you guys to read the rest of it. Please leave a review and let me know what you think about the story. Also, let me know what your favorite part has been so far and how you feel about it almost being over. With that all said, let's get onto the story!

Clary POV

I can hear someone walking around outside in the tunnels, so I quickly tell the kids to duck down and get in cover. Putting them in cover will keep them safer and give them a better chance of making it out of this alive. I can hear the footsteps coming closer and move so I'll be behind the door when it's open. The door slowly opens and I can see the person step into the room, but they immediately see the kids. I quietly walk over and grab them from behind, putting my arms in position and quickly twist – snapping his neck. When they fall I roll them over and see who it is.

"Sorry Ryan, but it had to be done." I say as I pat him down looking for weapons. I'm able to find a couple blades and his stele. Heading over to where the kids are I make a portal on the wall and pray that it'll work.

"Okay you guys, I need you all to hold hands tightly and do not let go. Max" I say and kneel down in front of him, "I need you to think of the New York institute, okay? You put it in your mind and don't let anything distract you" I say and he nods.

We all hold hands tightly with Max and I thinking of the institute and we step through the portal. For a moment, there is this weightlessness about us and then we're falling. We all land kind of hard on the ground, but no one has permanent damage or anything from it. Standing up I can feel something go down my legs and when I look all I can see is blood. I start having what feel like cramps, but they're so much more painful, to the point of where I have to take a knee. The kids all look at me in worry, but I wave to them to let them know I'm fine.

I stand up again and look around expecting to see the institute, but instead we're in the forest. I look behind me and I see a stream that leads to a waterfall, which has its own part of forest by it. I finally feel like I can breathe even though the kids aren't technically safe yet, but they're with me and I know that this group of them is alive.

"Okay guys, we've gotta leg it from here to the institute. You guys stay by me and if anything attacks then you hide, got it?" I tell them and they all nod.

We start walking, but as we get to the edge of the woods a barrier makes itself known. I ended up walking into the barrier and falling on my ass not even a second later. I can tell that they're all scared, but before I can really say anything something wraps itself around my ankle and yanks me down. I fall on my face and get dragged away from the kids and when I turn my head, I see Jordan holding me with one arm around my throat and his other with a dagger to my throat.

"Jordan. What're you doing? I'm your friend. You'd better have a good reason for holding a knife to my throat" I say, but he stands there like a statue. I see something out of my peripheral vision and see Jocelyn and Luke heading towards the kids, so I elbow Jordan in the gut and run for it. My throat gets a little cut, but nothing to worry about. I run over and shove Luke, sending him into the stream and then duck to avoid Jocelyn's blade.

I'm able to get between her and the kids, but it's not enough. I have to do something to keep them safe, so I pick up a blade and throw it at Jocelyn not paying attention to what happens to it after and turn towards the kids. I draw a rune on the ground in front of them that puts a barrier around them, but before it can close I throw the stele in to Max. I tell him to make a portal and get the others away, anywhere other than where we are at that moment and he nods. Jordan gets out of the stream and comes over, hitting me in the back of the head before climbing on top of me trying to pin me down. I knock him off and pull out my other dagger – my last dagger.

"Jordan, listen to me. We can fight all you want, but in the end you will be the dead one on the ground. I don't want to kill you, but if I have to in order to ensure these kids' safety then I will" I tell him with hope that he won't attack.

He charges at me and I don't move, I stand there until he gets within my reach. My hand shoots out and I start to hear him gurgling, so when I look I'm not that surprised to see the knife in his throat. I pull it out and he grabs at his throat, attempting to keep his blood from coming out, but it isn't working. After about thirty seconds he goes down to the ground and stops moving, which tells me he's dead.

I look towards Jocelyn, kind of challenging her to try something, but she starts to back up. Luke on the other hand decides to come forwards, attempting to tackle me, but I side-step and he goes flying.

"What's wrong Jocelyn? You scared of your own daughter?" I ask trying to get to her.

"You killed one of your best friends in order to protect these children, people you never would've met had the Clave not sent you out here. How could you do that to him? Better yet, would you actually kill your mother for these twerps?" she asks and I shrug.

"I do what I gotta do, whether it's for me or for a mission. I gotta kill you as you're a threat to not only me, but those children." I look over to where they were and see that they're gone, Max got them out. "They're finally safe and away from you, but I can't risk you coming back for them".

"I'm your mother. I birthed you and raised you from the time you were a baby. I kept you fed and safe and in a home with a roof over your head, took care of you. You can't kill your mother." She says as she glares at me.

"So I can't kill you, but you can kill me? I can kill Valentine because he wanted the world to be run by demons and I can kill Sebastian as he wanted the world to be in flames. However, I can't kill you even though you are kidnapping children and killing them for nothing?" I ask a little sarcastically.

"It wasn't for nothing! I needed sacrifices. I can't bring my husband and son back without blood sacrifices. It's only that none of their blood was strong enough to bring them back, I need Angel blood. Your blood." She says.

"Your husband is attempting to sneak up on me right now with hope that he can kill me" I say before turning and looking at him, signaling for him to go to her, "Valentine was your husband, he isn't anymore. The fact that you can't even get that right, tells me you're not focusing." I say.

I hold my knife up, ready to fight when a portal behind Jocelyn opens. I turn and look at it, which makes Jocelyn and Luke look behind them. I see Sara run out of the woods and over to Jocelyn, taking a moment by putting her hands on her knees to catch her breath. Jocelyn looks at me shocked and I shrug.

"The girl doesn't work out, train or hunt. Do you expect her to be able to make that run with ease?" I ask making fun of the girl who gives me a glare.

She signals for Jocelyn to get closer and starts whispering to her, but I can't tell what's being said. I can see her hands flying spastically and making strange motions, but nothing is really discernible from where I'm standing. I can see Jocelyn tense up as if she's about to hit the girl, or kill her, but then she calms down.

I see her put a hand on Sara's shoulder and the girl looks scared for her life at this motion. Jocelyn leans down and says something to her before starting to walk away. Luke walks over to the girl and says something and then I hear a noise. It's loud and sudden, scaring all of us a bit. I look over at Sara and see her lying down on the ground with blood all over her head, then I turn to Jocelyn and I see the gun in her hand. She looks over at me and I'm just grateful I gave max the stele so they could escape.


	14. How She Died?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but I hope it ends up being worth the wait. Please leave a review and let me know what you think of the story so far, or of any ideas that you have: I would love to hear them. With that all said, let's get onto the story!

Jace POV

I follow Alec from Clary's room back to his, keeping in mind everything we found out in the file I discovered and the video we saw. I can't get my mind over what occurred in that video, "what could make her do that Alec? I've seen a lot of things, but not that". I say as I lean against his desk, he takes a seat at the desk.

He shrugs, "The can only think of two things that could cause that kind of reaction. Something bad happened to Clary that's slowly making her go crazy or she'd been poisoned, but even then I don't know what poison would be able to do that."

I put my in my hands, trying to calm down. "Alright, then. I'm gonna go down to the library and check out their books, see if I can find anything. You wanna come with? It'll be quicker with two of us checking then just one" I say and he nods.

Heading downstairs we can hear some voices of others who live in the institute, but are unable to determine where they're coming from until we get closer to the library. Getting to the door, Alec gives me a look to see if we should come back later, but I just barge in. My girl's in trouble and needs help, I'm not stopping until I find her. I open the door and see some guy that Alec said was William, helping another one out of a hidden entrance in the floor. _I was just in here the other day, how did I not hear the floor squeaking underneath my feet?_.

William and this other guy lock eyes with us, watching warily as a girl then pops up from the hole as well. Alec leans over and whispers that the girl's name is Sara, she welcomed him to the institute when he first got there. William helps her as well, quickly shooing her out of the room before grabbing his weapons, the other guy following suit. "You weren't supposed to see that" William says as he kicks the entrance shut.

"We won't tell anyone if you can just answer some questions for us." I say as I kick the library door shut behind us.

William laughs. "If you're here for Clarissa, I can tell you that you're too late. At this time, she's either being hunted only to be killed, or she's dead." Alec and I share a glance real quick, before looking at the door William is now standing on. "You see, she wasn't being a very good girl, digging around where she shouldn't have been. Did you know that she killed our girl, Myra?  
We caught her coming back to the institute in different clothes than she left in. I don't think she saw us coming home that day. Pitiful really."

"Where is she?" I ask and he just laughs. I walk over to his friend and don't even give him a chance as I stab my knife into his skull, quieting Williams laughing. "I'm not gonna ask you again. Where's my girlfriend?"

He smiles, "The girl who rejected your proposal is currently in the woods – dead. You can't save her. You're too late." Alec goes to kill him, but I put my arm out to stop him.

"How do you know she rejected my proposal? How do you even know that I proposed?"

"We've been watching you for longer than you think." He says before slitting his own throat. We bolt out of the institute, ' _Don't let me be too late!_ '

Clary POV

I didn't get to know Sara too well during my time here, but from the way she had whispered to Jocelyn, I knew it was good that I didn't get close to her. However, seeing her drop to the ground with a hole in her head definitely made me shrink back a bit. I didn't scream, but after what I had done to Myra and seen done to those kids, I don't know if this could scare me much.

I quickly look over to where the Max and the other surviving kids were only to see that they are gone. That's good, one less thing to worry about at this moment. I focus back on Jocelyn, keeping an eye on the gun dangling in her hand. I try to keep Luke in my peripheral vision, but he keeps circling me like a predator with its prey. I tighten my grip on my knife, holding up my other arm for balance.

"I guess what she said was nothing important, otherwise you wouldn't have killed her" I say to Jocelyn who just laughs.

"You want to know what she said?" Jocelyn asked while spinning the gun in her hand, "Sara informed me that your blonde boy toy and his brother seem to have discovered our cells. The same place I found you." My blood froze. _Jace is here? Did Alec tell him to come?_ "I'll make you a deal, Clarissa. I'll give my people the signal to leave the boys alone…if you tell me where you sent children."

I start laughing, to the point where I grab my midsection because it starts to hurt. I can feel dried blood on my legs still from earlier and I can feel more blood go down my legs; the pain from m midsection now being from something other than laughter. I keep my face as smiling as I can, refusing to let them see anything else. "You think I know where the kids went? I gave them instructions, but they were quite vague. They could've gone anywhere. As for Jace and Alec, they can handle anything. They don't need me to save them." I say, hoping that I'm right.

I turn and see Luke stood behind me, waiting for something, before turning my attention back to Jocelyn, but her gun in my face. She smirks and points it over my shoulder, pulling the trigger and making my ears pop. I fall to my knees while gripping my ears as I feel the blood trickle out of them, quickly coating my hands. I attempt to look at what she shot at, only to see Luke on the ground not moving. I look back towards Jocelyn while trying to regain my hearing and see her standing over me – her gun pointed at me.

Thinking quickly, I roll to the left to avoid her shot, but she never fires the gun. She looks at the ground where I was and runs her fingers on the ground, rubbing something between her fingers.

"You're bleeding, Clarissa. I expected this to happen sooner, but I guess even I can't plan out your miscarriage"

My heart drops for a minute and my mind starts racing, "What are you talking about? I was never pregnant" I stand up, looking around for any exit that I can find. I can hear the stream closer to me, the water crashing against the rocks being even louder in my ears than ever before.

"You will never understand. Guess I did the child a favor then. Tell me, do you see evil Clarissa anymore? The one with the white hair?" she asks and I freeze again.

"How do you know about her? I never told anyone about her"

"Do you see her? Is she here?" Jocelyn repeats, "It's imperative that I know"

I take a step back towards the stream, while keeping an eye on her. "How do you know about that girl? Did you make her?"

"DO YOU SEE HER?!" Jocelyn yells – quickly lifting her gun and pointing it at me. I cross my arms and glare, refusing to answer her question. She walks closer and closer to me, never lowering her gun – and with every forward step she takes, I take one backwards. Then my foot hits the edge where the ground and water meet. One more step and I'm in the stream. She points her gun at my head, "Do you see the white haired Clarissa?"

Quickly, I reach out and grab her arm, pulling her into the stream with me. I know there's a chance of it killing me and I'm okay with that _'As long as she dies. That's all that matters.'_

I lose grip on her arm as soon as we hit the water and I go flying through the water. My head hits a rock and I'm left with a pounding headache, a hit that I know will leave me bleeding. I try to get my head above the water to look around, but I keep getting dragged down beneath. Unable to breathe, I start flailing my arms, looking for anything that I can grab. I'm able to grab onto a branch, but it snaps under my weight. I try for other rocks, but the speed of the water makes it impossible. My arms hitting the rocks, but unable to do anything else.

Then I'm flying through the air and can breathe. I can see the waterfall beside me as I fall towards the lake below it, but it doesn't last long. I see the rock sticking out of the waterfall without being able to avoid it – leading to my left shoulder slamming into it. I slam into the water moments later. With one arm, I struggle to swim to the shore only to fall onto my back and struggle to grasp a breath.

I can hear footsteps coming my way and quickly, I gain hope that they can help, but the feet lead me to believe otherwise. Looking up at their faces I see Jocelyn and Luke there, but Luke died – unless she didn't actually shoot him. He steps from my vision and I can feel something tear at my abdomen, but can't lift my head to look. My vision going in and out from pain, blood from my head wound getting into my eye and blinding me. After a few minutes they walk away, but I can't hear anything said.

_Everything hurts. My head, my arms… everything. Looking on the ground to my right and then my left, all I can see is blood pooling around me. Trying to get up, I feel this pain in my right shoulder which now feels like glass. My entire body feels like glass, like any little touch would break me completely._

" _AAAAHHH1" I scream, gripping my shoulder with my left hand, falling back to the ground and curling into a ball. I can feel something rip, something else feeling like I am getting stabbed and when I look to the ground I can only see more blood pouring out from a wound on my abdomen._

' _Is that mine?' I thought, laying there trying to remember what happened. 'Oh yeah, that's right. We fought and I was pushed. They pulled out that thing. I hit that other thing and they still came for me. '. I can remember everything that happened, but how long will that last? I look around me for people or buildings, but there are none. I go to grab my stele and then remember…it's broken. My phone is who knows where. "They're safe" I say to myself. "They made it."_

_Laying here, all I can think of is how this came to happen. Why I was here in this position and why everything else happened. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long as the pain and blood loss become too much and I am encompassed in the darkness._

_Max POV_

_We fell to the ground in a heap, but I don't let it keep me down. I look around and find the New York Institute in front of me – my home. I get the others up quickly and bring them in, trying to keep them out of sight. I hear a gasp behind me and turn to see Izzy along with Simon, my mom and dad, and some sparkly dude there. I ran over to hug my mom, but Izzy stopped me._

_"Max" she says with tears in her eyes before hugging me. "You're alive". I try to go for my mom again, but Izzy pulls me away, "She doesn't remember you or any of us. A rune was put on her, but we don't know of any that can return her memory"_

_"I do" I say as I run to her, quickly placing the rune that Clary taught me on her. She told me everything she did – that she had to do in order to ensure us getting out safely. I see my mom shake her head and she starts mumbling, explaining where Clary went and what she was to do – but she froze when she saw me._

_"Mom" I say and put my hand on her shoulder, "I know that I need to explain some things, but first the four kids by the door need medical help."_

_She looks behind me and around at everyone quickly, as if what she was looking for would disappear. "Where's Clary? She was supposed to return with you. Wh-where is she?" she asks and I shake my head._

_"I don't know at this point. She gave me the stele and told me to get the other kids to safety. Told me that I had one job to do and this was it." I say and see her face fall slightly. She looks to the sparkly guy who agrees to look us over. I just hope Clary's okay._


	15. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So this is the last chapter for this story! I was originally going to do this as two separate chapters, but while writing it I just grew to enjoy it as one all-together. Since this is the final chapter of the story, it only felt right for it to be the longest chapter of the story. So the chapter is ending at 2,435 words.
> 
> I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who supported this story from the beginning through the little hiatus and finally to the finish. I understand that it was a bit of a ride to say the least, but I am so honored that you chose to support this story for so long.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who joined this little journey and I will see you all in our next story!
> 
> S.S.S.

Jace POV

"Max, listen to me carefully" I say while kneeling down to be his height, "Where is the last place you saw Clary?"

He looks around at all of us and starts to shake his head before meeting the eyes of the other kids. All four of them are nodding to him, as if to say that he needs to tell us. Whatever happened out there, it cost everyone in this room something.

"The only way would be for me to take you there. I don't know if the place had a name, but I can remember the details so we could get there through portal." He tells us.

"Alec" I say, turning towards him while keeping a hand on Max's shoulder, "come with us. We'll be able to find her quicker." Alec nods and I pull out my stele, preparing to draw the portal.

I make the first marking on the wall and – "Clary!" I turn towards Maryse.

"What?" I ask, "What about her?"

"I saw her that day she left. She was covered in blood, there was enough that she left bloody foot prints on the floor. I remember asking her what happened, but she attacked. I don't know what happened after." Maryse says just as clave members arrive.

"Funny, Mrs. Lightwood. Our men said that the same thing happened to them. Except before she put them unconscious, she said that her name was Amatis. We knew of her mission, so she had no reason to go after us." Brother Peter says.

I look to Alec before finishing the portal. I grab one of Max's hands and Alec grabs the other before we jump through. For a moment, it feels like we're flying before the feeling flees and our feet hit the ground – Max only staying straight because Alec held him. Looking around, it doesn't seem like anywhere I had seen before. There were woods behind us that didn't seem to lead anywhere and in front of us was a stream that lead to a cliff, maybe a waterfall.

"JACE!" Alec yells out and I turn to see him covering Max's eyes. I run over and stumble a little at the sight of Jordan lying there on the ground with a knife in his neck. Lying next to him is the girl from the Los Angeles Institute with a hole in her head.

"Jordan. Sara. Do you think Clary took them out?" I ask, afraid of the answer.

"Clary took out Jordan" Max interrupts, gaining the attention of both of us. "I saw that. We were in hiding and Jordan held a knife to her throat. She got out of his hold and pulled that out of her belt. That was her last dagger. She told him that she didn't want to fight, but she would kill him if that was the only way for her to get us out safely. If Clary killed the girl then she did so out of self-defense. That's the only way."

We walk away from the bodies, refusing to acknowledge the traitors currently lying on the ground. They would be dealt with after we find Clary and get her home. I look to Alec and signal to the woods, he and Max would walk along the border and call out her name. I'm looking in the stream and over the cliff. Reaching the end of the stream, I look in the water to try to spot any sign of her. The water is clear like a sky on a cloudless day – this I was thankful for as I didn't have to stick my hand in. I walked along the edge of the stream, but eventually make my way to the other end with no sign of Clary. I follow the water with my eyes and they widen as they go over the sharp rocks sticking out of the waterfall. I run my eyes over the pool of water at the bottom and then over the ground that connects to the pool. I notice a lump on the ground, but am unable to tell what it is from this distance.

"Alec down here!" I yell out before jumping down.

Maryse POV

"Mrs. Lightwood, is that all you can remember from that day?" Brother Peter asks again.

"Look, I have told you everything that I know. My memories are coming back slowly, just give me time and space. That's all I ask for." I say before standing up and going over to Isabelle. "Where are our new members? I remember that we had some new people joining our institute"

"Well the one named Zach is dead. The other two, Samara and Ryan are upstairs, but I don't know what they're doing."

"Um, Isabelle the new members of our institute…their names aren't Samara and Ryan. There was no Zachary meant to come here. There were only two people meant to come here, both were female, and there was no Samara."

She and I locked eyes for a moment before running up the stairs. Isabelle kicks the door down and both of them look to us with wide eyes. Something in their eyes tells us that they know why we're here and one opens their mouth to talk, but Izzy hisses at them.

"Down stairs. Now." I say as they both stand and start walking. We follow them downstairs and just as our feet hit the ground a portal opens, my sons stepping through it, Jace with Clary unconscious in his hands. She's covered in blood, but whose I have no clue. Jace's clothes are covered in blood and Alec has some on him too, but Clary is the worst off.

"Take her upstairs. Maggie's up there with the children." I say and he and Max take off.

"Alec, is everything okay?" I ask as he takes a few steps forwards and sends Ryan flying. He looks towards Samara and she starts crying – apologizing for what she did.

"What did you do Samara?" I ask, but Alec interrupts.

"You poisoned her. I don't know how you did it, but you did. We found a video of her screaming at someone to leave her alone. Yelling that the other person doesn't exist. Then she changes into something else and says that Jocelyn must die. What. Did. You. Poison. Her. With?" he says slowly and dangerously.

"Look" Samara starts, "We were told that we would get paid big if we killed her or got her to kill herself. I thought we could poison her enough to do it herself, but we never saw any side effects. I guess we didn't give it enough time or something"

"What. Poison. Did. You. Use?!" Alec starts yelling.

"Faebane."

I put my hands over my mouth and watch as a few of the Clave members pick the two of them up. One of the Clave members starts to make the portal, but I have to ask them.

"Who? Who hired you to kill her?" I ask the two currently standing with cuffs on their hands. They shake their heads to say that they won't tell me so one of the members holding them 'accidentally' hit them in the head.

Ryan met my gaze. "Lucien and Jocelyn Morgenstern. They were planning to have their own child and saw Clarissa to be someone that was just in the way. We needed the money and didn't have a problem killing someone we didn't know."

Alec POV

"She's gonna be fine Jace. This is Clary. She's too stubborn to die." I say in an attempt to calm him down. I can hear someone coming up the stairs and turn to see my mom and Iz.

"What's the word on her condition?" My mom asks and we shake our heads.

"Maggie took her in and kicked us out. Hasn't let anyone help. He hasn't popped out to tell us anything either. Anything happen on your end?"

"Turns out Jocelyn and Luke were the two who put out the hit on her. Apparently they want to have their own little one and Clary was in the way somehow. They said that they didn't have a problem killing someone they don't know."

"How long were they poisoning her?" Jace asks and we all look to my mom.

"I didn't ask. I asked who and then let the Clave take them. The Clave will question them to figure everything else out, but I needed to be here with you guys. Clary will need all the support she can get and when she is well enough to talk then we can ask out questions."

The door opens a minute later and Maggie pops out. He looks at Jace immediately and only looks to the rest of us after a minute.

"How is she Magnus?" my mom asks and he sighs a little too long and loud for comfort.

"Clarissa has a lot of wounds. Some bruises, some cuts, but her worst one is internal. She has a concussion and is currently in a coma. Her right shoulder has been shattered. There are no full bones in there; just pieces. She still has a good amount of poison running through her veins. She's lost a lot of blood and I don't know if she's going to wake from this."

"What do you mean her worst wound in internal Maggie?" Jace asks and Magnus sighs again.

"Clarissa was pregnant, but the stress of the mission caused her to miscarry."

Jace POV

Pregnant. My girl was pregnant and I let her go into this mission that I didn't know about. I should have known something was wrong long before we got to this point.

"That explains why she was throwing up when I got there" Alec says, grabbing our attention like a moth to a flame.

"What are you talking about Alec?" I say.

"When I got to that Institute, I found her in the bathroom throwing up. I probably would've come to the conclusion of her being pregnant, but…FUCK! She tried to tell me!"

"She told you and you let her go through with the mission! Are you insane!?" Maryse yells, but Alec puts his hand out in a way to stop her.

"No. She didn't full on tell me, but she tried to. I asked if she was sick because she was throwing up, but she said no. Said that there were foods she just couldn't stand the smell of. They made her nauseous and she usually avoided them. I didn't think she could've been pregnant."

I can't really hear anything, but I can feel my knees suddenly meeting the ground. I can't focus on anything other than the fact that she was pregnant and I wasn't there to protect her. I can feel something pulling at my hair and my sight is going blurry quickly, but I can't find it in myself to care. Maryse's face appears in front of me and she pulls me into a hug, but I don't reciprocate it. I can't.

"There's more" Magnus interrupts, "With Clarissa's current condition, it is my opinion that the most humane thing we can do for her is put her down. She will be in a lot of pain when she wakes – if she wakes – and she doesn't deserve to be in that place."

"Wait, they said they used faebane. Could we save her if we got the poison out of her system? Stop her bleeding and get the poison out?" Maryse interrupts, but Maggie just shakes his head.

"We have not found an antidote for faebane yet. She is in such a vulnerable state that if we were to try anything on her it could kill her. As per the idea of stopping her bleeding, he wounds have clotted. However, she's lost so much blood that she should have died where she was found." Maggie states and sends us all into hysterics.

"Jace" Maggie says and I look at him through glazed eyes, "She was your girl. Every other family member she had has turned on her. It is your choice, but we need to be humane to her. She is going to be suffering to months – maybe years – and she doesn't deserve that. I say to put her down, but it is your call."

I try to speak, but it just comes out as a cry. I stand and push past him, running to the bed where she is covered in enough bandages to be a mummy. I want to touch her, but it's just going to hurt her.

' _We need to put her down.', 'She's just gonna suffer', 'it's your call'_

I don't want to lose her, but she's already gone. I put my head down by hers and lightly kiss her head, able to feel the unconscious flinch by her. I mutter to her that I love her and that I'm sorry.

Then slide the knife into her head.

Her brain.

She can't suffer anymore, but she also can't live anymore. I look at her body and she is no longer breathing. She's in a better place now, that's all I can believe at this point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this story, this chapter or anything from this story, please leave a review and let me know! I love reading your guys' reviews and responding to them.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoy this story. This first chapter is not much, but it's meant to be a lead into the story. If you did enjoy this chapter, then please leave a "kudos" or a comment and let me know what you thought.


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